Tortured Spirit
by Megga B
Summary: Vegeta is being haunted by the spirit of one of his past victims. Can Bulma help him defeat this new threat? Or will the fragile ties of his sanity snap from the haunting? please R&R!
1. A Visitor

Chapter One: A Visitor  
  
He was thrown down ruthlessly from his position in the air when the gravity simulator, with its amazing ability to find just the right time, broke down. Looking around for the source of the room's distress, he found that it had been himself who caused it when he saw the scorched remains of the control panel. Snarling with rage, the saiyan lifted himself to his feet.  
  
Now the gravity room would be down for at least for a week before the onna could find the time to get around and fix it. He knew that she was busy with those retards from the United States who wanted nothing more than to have the rights to use her inventions for space travel. After all, his mate was a genius. And her space ships were the fastest in the universe.  
  
Wanting nothing more than a good shower and then bed now that the simulator was broken, Vegeta grabbed a towel from the handy little rack Bulma had insisted in putting there and flung it around his neck before entering the house. He glanced at the clock on the microwave on his way by the kitchen and noted with a grimace that it was 3:43 AM. Bulma was not going to be happy.  
  
Climbing the stairs was always a tedious task after a long night of training. Each grueling step was pure agony on his already shot legs and he had to stifle tiny grunts as he climbed. With a sigh of relief, the saiyan's foot finally hit the top step. Continuing forward he noticed flashes of light coming from Trunks' room so he altered his course and went there instead.  
  
Trunks, who's face was mere inches from his bright TV screen, did not notice his fathers wide frame in his door way until the older saiyan spoke up.  
  
"You'll ruin your eyes like that, boy."  
  
Visibly startled, the hybrid jumped up into a fighting stance before his tired mind could compute what was really going on. Vegeta laughed at his son's expense and trunks calmed when he noticed who it was.  
  
"Don't do that!" Trunks growled clearly embarrassed at being caught off guard. "You scared the shit out of me dad!"  
  
Vegeta scowled, and Trunks placed a hand over his mouth. "What have I told you about cursing?"  
  
Trunks' eyes sought out something interesting to look at on the floor. "Never to do it while Mom's in the house?" The boy offered hopefully.  
  
"That's right."  
  
"But Dad, she's asleep!"  
  
"Or is she?" Vegeta grinned wickedly when his son's eyes darted to the dark corners of his room, looking for any blue haired spies who might jump out and steal his precious game boy away from him. "Remember kid, she hears everything."  
  
The young saiyan nodded before stifling a huge yawn. "Your ki was keeping me awake, Dad."  
  
"Well I'm done now so it's time for you to get in bed. Your mother won't be too happy when you collapse and your face ends up in your cereal in the morning."  
  
Grinning at the thought of his mother wailing that her 'baby boy has died', Trunks crawled into bed, pulling the covers around him.  
  
"Good night, Dad." He whispered, before falling into a blissful sleep.  
  
Vegeta smiled at his son before nodding and closing the door behind him. He continued to walk down the hall towards his and Bulma's room but he spotted a door to his left and stopped, considering it. Deciding that his bed could wait, he made his way towards the door and opened it, his nose wrinkling at the sweet scent that wafted out from this particular room.  
  
At the far end of the room, lay his daughter in her little white crib. This was his pride and joy.  
  
Reacting to her father's presence, the babe stirred, a small smile forming on her tiny lips, but continued to sleep. Vegeta felt his heart skip a beat when she did this as he leaned over the railing of her crib. While he was roaming the galaxy, killing and destroying, he had felt that nothing would ever tame him and that he would be a monster forever. Now he found himself to be badly mistaken as he beamed down at his perfect daughter.  
  
Unconsciously, his hand came down towards his daughters, and he extended a finger which she grabbed and squeezed with all her saiyan might. He smiled. She was defiantly his. If that blue furry tail didn't say so then her unnatural strength did.  
  
Still smiling, the saiyan unwrapped the tiny hand from his finger and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Deciding not to make any more stops, he finally made it to his own room, where Bulma's snores shook the walls. He tiptoed past the bed, careful to not wake his sleeping mate, and succeeded in entering the bathroom without trouble. Holding his breath nervously, he slowly closed the door.  
  
Letting out the held breath with a great 'whoosh' the exhausted saiyan proceeded to undress and turn on the hot water at full blast, noticing for the first time how loud it was in the silent house. Straining his saiyan ears against the sounds of the shower, Vegeta listened for any change in Bulma's thunderous snores and hearing none, stepped into the burning spray with a sigh.  
  
He let himself fall to his knees as the water soothed his aching muscles. His training had been going fairly well until that damn gravity room broke down. He was a super saiyan no doubt, but now that Kakarot was back, his territorial instincts had taken hold, causing him to train more and harder. He wanted to claim his title as prince. The legends had always told of a saiyan who was undefeatable in battle, ruthless in heart, and cunning in mind. Oh Vegeta could be ruthless and cunning, but the undefeatable part was what he failed to accomplish. Every time that brain damaged third class retarded son-of-a-bitch beat him, a little sliver of his sanity was cut away from his limited supply, and he ended up close to death many times as he trained at fatal levels.  
  
Vegeta growled. No matter how much he pushed himself, no matter how much torture he made his body endure, there was always someone who was two steps ahead of him. First there had been Frieza. He had trained so hard to become stronger than that doll-faced fucker, but who had ended up defeating him? Kakarot. He had literally almost killed himself in preparation for the android storm and who had killed Cell? Kakarot's brat! A fucking eleven- year-old boy! It was humiliating beyond all reason!  
  
Still snarling with disdain, Vegeta turned off the water and stepped out into the bathroom, where, being to lazy to towel himself dry, he powered up sending the droplets flying. He stopped suddenly, listening, his brows knitted together in confusion. The entire house was silent.  
  
None of Bulma's snores shook the windows no cries from Bra were ringing through the house and no roaring or barking or meowing could be heard from the numerous animals the Briefs owned. Even Trunks was silent when he usually snored as loud as his mother. Vegeta's heart rate started to rise as his ears, reacting to the silence, started to ring.  
  
The house was never this quiet.  
  
Turning to the sink, the shaken saiyan turned on the cold water and started to splash it over his burning face. 'I must be losing my mind' he thought desperately not understanding why he was reacting so strangely to complete silence. He let the water slide slowly down over his dark skin before lifting his eyes to the mirror above the sink.  
  
Releasing a horrified wail Vegeta fell over himself and into the tub behind him where he lay, his eyes wide and his heart racing. He jumped when the door to the bathroom flew open and a worried Bulma bolted in her eyes frantic. When she spotted Vegeta sitting with his arms wrapped tight around his shaking knees, blood trickling slowly down the back of his neck, her features became even more crazed.  
  
"Jesus Christ, Vegeta what the hell happened?!" Grabbing a towel, she knelt beside him in the tub, and pressed it against the back of his head where it had no doubt split, trying to stop the flow of blood. When he only continued to stare at the mirror above him, she grabbed his chin, turning his face towards her. "What happened, Vegeta?"  
  
After those three words were uttered, the saiyan seemed to snap from a trance. His hand came back to where the towel Bulma held was slowly turning crimson with blood and felt around noting the warm liquid with a grimace.  
  
"I-I just fell." He said quietly, his eyes lowering in shame. "Yeah...I tripped and fell."  
  
It sounded to Bulma as if he was trying to convince himself of it more than her, but she shrugged it off. Getting up, she offered him her hand and he took it gratefully. As they passed by the mirror, Vegeta gave it one terrified glance and saw with a sigh of relief, only his own chalk white face.  
  
Not someone else's.  
  
  
  
TBC. What had Vegeta seen? Tell me what ya think! 


	2. Meetings in the Night

Tortured Spirit

Chapter 2: Meetings in the Night

"Vegeta, I strongly disagree with your training methods. I want you to tone it down before you go insane."

"You apparently know nothing of a Saiyan's endurance abilities. I will not go _insane_."

"You're hallucinating! You obviously saw something last night and I have reason to believe that it has something to do with lack of sleep. This is _not _healthy."

"No! You want to know what's not healthy? Huh? _You,_ riding my ass all the time. I'm sick of it!"

"I'm not "riding your ass". Weather you want to believe it or not, you have people here who care about you. You have a family! And we… we need you Vegeta…"

Trunks had heard enough. Straightening up from his post outside his parents closed door, he slowly crept down to his sister's room where he could hear her creating a racket worthy of the name "Saiyan tantrum". He could still hear the remnants of his parent's latest row echoing in his young mind and he sniffed quietly. Even though this time the fight wasn't about him, he still felt partly responsible for the looming feeling of unease that resided in the house as of late.

He turned the doorknob to his sister's room and pushed the door open, running quickly to the crib at the other end. "shhh, Bra it's ok. Big brother's here. Don't cry."

Bra, abruptly ceasing her wails, gazed up at Trunks with huge cerulean eyes, as her tail, once thrashing in discomfort, wrapped itself around her waste in new found content.

"Da?"

Trunks sighed. "Dad's busy right now, Bra."

Bra scowled. "Da?"

Trunks scooped her up with another sigh and settled into a comfortable position with his back against the wall and his sister in his arms.

"Bra, I'm scared." He admitted and Bra gazed up at him with concern. "They were fighting again and this one sounded pretty bad… I just… I just don't know. What if Dad disappears again?"

Bra began to babble incoherently and trunks smiled, nodding at her as if he could understand her. "Yup, defiantly. You're the smart one." She grinned toothlessly up at her big brother and he laughed.

"I'm glad someone will listen to me…" he said, his laughter dieing. Bra furrowed her eyebrows.

"Ma?"

"Yeah mom listens but… I don't know. She's wrapped up in her own stuff right now and I guess it's just easier to talk to you."

"Got?"

Trunks snorted, "Are you kidding me? Goten can't piss straight let alone listen to my problems and provide logical suggestions."

Bra released a long drawn out sigh and snuggled deeper into Trunks' arms. They sat in complete silence for a while until they both jumped at the sound of a door opening and slamming shut and someone stamping down the hallways towards the staircase. There was no doubt to who this someone was as he heard the hum of the GR powering up.

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Throughout the remainder of the day, Trunks could sense his father's power level rising and falling as he ruthlessly beat himself into exhaustion. At one point he's felt it disappear completely and he'd began to panic but had calmed when it appeared again, breathing a ragged sigh of relief.

Although Trunks refused to bother Vegeta, Bulma shut down the gravity room manually at random to go in and personally scream at him.

"Vegeta, the monitor readings are off the charts! You need to stop!"

"I don't care what that stupid piece of useless machinery tells you! I'm fine, now leave me alone!"

"Vegeta I swear to God, if you kill yourself again, I won't wish you back! You can rot in hell for refusing to listen to reason!"

"That's fine with me. I should be dead anyway…"

There was a small moment in witch Trunks thought it was all over and began to tiptoe back to the stairs but stopped when he heard his mother's small sniffles. Curiosity took hold and he walked to the one way window/mirror and watched, fascinated.

Bulma was sitting on the floor, tears running down her pale cheeks as Vegeta stood over her with an expression closely resembling... concern?

"Please…" Bulma sniffed. "I'm tired of fighting with you over something so stupid. I'm tired of having to- to sew up wounds and- and clean up b-blood and I'm tired of all the violence… I just… I just want a normal family."

Trunks watched his father closely for any kind of reaction. The Saiyan was still watching Bulma with that strange look but the look had been altered slightly. Now he looked almost hurt. His mother was still sitting on the floor, sniffling quietly, and Vegeta stooped down in front of her, taking her hand in his. Trunks smiled guiltily. He didn't think he was supposed to be witnessing this.

Bulma looked up at her husband, her expression a mixture of shock and curiosity.

"Bulma…" he began, "I know you long for a "normal" family, but as you know, I'm not exactly your definition of "normal". I'm an alien on this planet and as long as I'm here, things aren't going to be "normal". In order for me to improve I need to push my limits to the extreme. Do you understand now?"

Trunks looked from his father to his mother with an expression of shocked joy. Such and exchange was never _ever_ seen between the two beings, and he felt as though he'd seen something so rare that it was worthy of public announcement. His mother was obviously flattered at her husband's apparent show of care and she nodded. Trunks hopped down from the platform he stood on, making his way over to the phone to call Goten his spirits lifted.

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In the once-quiet medical bay in the east wing of capsule corp., Bulma was attempting to care for a bruised and battered Vegeta, who had just returned from a heated spar with Goku. He'd crashed into an underground cavern and sliced open his back on a jagged rock that stuck up from the ground like a vicious spear and was now fighting a new battle, this time with his harried wife who was advancing on him with a bottle of alcohol and a number of assorted bandages.

"Vegeta please come here. You're acting like a child."

"I don't need medical attention." He argued, dodging a lunge from Bulma. "It's not that big of a deal. It'll heal on its own."

"The thing is a foot long! Now stop being such a puss and let me clean it! God only knows what vile diseases linger in that cave."

"I'm immune to your weak earthly diseases. Leave it alone."

Bulma stopped her advances for a minute while seriously considering grabbing a water gun from her son's room, filling it with alcohol and dousing the stubborn Saiyan with the stuff. "Just come here, get on the table and let me clean that, and it'll be all over in a matter of minutes." When he only stood there scowling at her, the heiress decided to use her last resort. "If you don't cooperate with me I could always call Goku over here to deal with you."

It was amazing the effect a couple simple words could have on a man. Vegeta gave her one last disgusted glance before finally submitting himself, jumping up on the table with a scowl of defiance.

Bulma nodded in satisfaction before gripping the shirt he wore at a tear and beginning to rip at it, revealing the hideous gash underneath. The almost healthy looking pink color residing around the edges had disappeared, leaving in its wake an infected purple color. It was exactly a foot long running from his left shoulder blade down to his lower back and was busy oozing blood and puss.

"See? Absolutely nothing to worry about."

Bulma only raised an eyebrow.

The process was relatively painless; the only sign that vegeta even knew Bulma had poured pure alcohol over it was the slightest paling of his stony features. Bulma wrapped pretty much his entire torso in bandages and after a quick lecture about not training for a few days, Vegeta was free to go.

To bed.

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Vegeta squirmed uncomfortably with a pained grimace. That gash was causing him more discomfort than he'd anticipated and he now wondered what it would have felt like had he _not_ allowed Bulma to clean it out.

Throwing off the covers, Vegeta climbed out of bed, his mind set on a quick midnight feast. Bulma was still asleep but thankfully tonight the snoring seemed to have no intention of stopping. Vegeta didn't know if is fragile Psyche could withstand another terrifying encounter with pure silence.

The snores also allowed him to sneak out the door, and into the pitch blackness that his Saiyan vision quickly adapted to, able to see almost perfectly in a mere 10 seconds. He liked wandering the corridors late at night. It was a pastime either when he couldn't sleep or he just didn't want to. This time he defiantly needed the sleep. What Bulma had said about what he'd seen the night before bothered him slightly and since the mind had a nasty habit of relaying inappropriate things at inappropriate times (although it would seem a pale face staring back at you from within a mirror could be a very appropriate thing to associate with the dead of night), he began to think about just exactly what he'd seen. Who was it? And why did they seem so familiar?

His thoughts were interrupted by a crash that emitted from below his feet in the kitchen. Bulma's snores, he realized with a grimace, had ceased long ago.

'_Dammit.' _he thought to himself, his teeth bared in his initial fear. _'Perfect timing you have there, Bulma.' _

Then his common sense kicked in, allowing him to view the situation in a more realistic light with possible explanations that didn't involve a pale face staring back at you from within a mirror. Burglars. Yeah that was it. Burglars.

He continued walking with a new found confidence and proceeded down the stairs as quietly as he could, but when he entered the kitchen, however, his so called "new found confidence" disappeared like a reluctant date on prom night. Standing across from him, in a glowing aura of abominable glory, was the figure of a woman who was obviously busy with a glass she held that she seemed to be displeased with. The specter looked as though she couldn't bear her hatred for the glass any longer and threw it behind her where it shattered against a wall.

This was what woke Vegeta from his stupor. Somebody was on his property destroying his belongings… somebody was going to die.

"Who the hell are you?"

The woman froze, the plastic bottle that belonged to bra in her hand deflating in on itself under the pressure of her grip. "Vegeta… the very _Saiyan _I was hoping to see."

She whispered slowly before whipping around with a ghoulish hiss. Vegeta took a step back in shock.

Where eyes should have been remained only two oozing black holes that crawled with a variety of flesh eating worms and parasites. Her nose looked to have been ripped of her face, in its wake, a large sucking hole that drew in air with great rasping pants, and seemed to suck in the very world around them. Her face was so horribly distorted that she was hardly recognizable as something that might have been humanoid at one time; her mouth hanging open in a hellish angle and the skin drooping with decay.

"Beautiful isn't it?" she asked. Suddenly her face began to mend itself. Two purple orbs filled the sockets, the gaping nose hole was covered with a snooty, upturned, almost regal nose and the skin and mouth transformed back into what had to have been the face of a very pretty woman. "I hope you liked it…" Her lip curled back into a loathing sneer. "That's what I looked like two weeks after you slaughtered my people.

Recovering from his shock, Vegeta bared his teeth in a feral snarl. "I don't know who you are but if you aren't gone in the next couple seconds I _will_ kill you, female or not."

"How ironic that is, Vegeta" she said smiling viciously at him "because guess what sweet heart, you already have. Over twenty five years ago in fact."

Vegeta snickered, finally understanding. "If you bartered your way here from the seventh circle of hell to scare the living shit out of me and make me feel guilty about the people I've killed in the past, you've wasted your time."

"Time? _Time!_" She opened her mouth and released a screeching sound that almost made Vegeta want to curl up in a corner somewhere. "What is_ time?_ That word means nothing to the dead!"

Screaming she lunged at the unsuspecting Saiyan who was thrown bodily against the wall and pinned beneath the opposing specter. "Where I come from, time has no place. There is no night there is no day there is no sound or smell or taste or touch. There's _nothing_. I am able to feel nothing but anger and hatred now and it's all directed at _you._"

Vegeta roared in fury and threw a punch right between the banshee's eyes but gasped when his fist went right through her. His arm tingled with the cold that engulfed it and she grinned at him out from beneath his bicep.

"Attractive, huh?" And he watched as she reached inside her own head and began to pull out his arm which was covered in a thick pink residue that dripped onto the once-clean tile. She released him and he crumpled to the floor where he sat staring at his arm with disbelief.

"Don't worry," she said "You'll have time to wash that before it starts to feed on your mortal flesh."

Vegeta tore his eyes away from his soaked arm to glare up at her. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"I think I've already established that multiple times but it appears that your memory has been tainted by age…" She began to walk around the kitchen, her steps echoing eerily in the silence of the house. "Very well. If you truly don't remember… but I will only answer one of those questions." She stopped at a drawer and opened it, producing from its depths a very large, very lethal looking knife. Vegeta looked at it with discomfort. "The reason I'm here is simple enough. I have come to end your life, Saiyan." She ran one long pale dainty finger along the sharp edge of the knife thoughtfully. "I'm going to kill you."

At these words Vegeta's protective instincts flickered to life. His nostrils flared his eyes narrowed and his muscles tightened. How could he possibly defend himself against something that wanted to hurt him if he couldn't hurt it back? Before he could decide on a plan, the spirit was right up in his face, her eyes wild with a crazed fury. "Yes I am going to kill you. But before I do, I'm going to up your life so badly that in the end you will beg for death." She grinned at him and he got shakily to his feet. "Oh yes… I'm going to have so much fun with you…"

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Oh my GOD. Has it really been over what? (counts on fingers) six months since I last updated? Jesus guys I'm sorry… I've been busy with school and work and just… I've had no time for fanfiction… but now I'm back! I'm going to be done with card castle chapter three soon so keep an eye out for it. Spring break is this Thursday through Monday the 30th I think that's what that Monday is so ill be writing away… and playing world of warcraft (god I love that game!) comments are appreciated, flames are ignored

(or responded to in a not-so-nice fashion) and happy reading all!


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